1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer equipped with an image memory, in particular to an apparatus for displaying or printing a visible pattern by generating a dot pattern representing a character or pattern, generating a contour line and/or filling in the internal area of the contour line with black, and to an image processing system for text preparation or pattern processing through these operations. In the present specification, the terms "pattern information", "character information" and "image information" are used with substantially same meaning.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to an image processing system allowing easy editing of prepared image information through simple operations.
2. Related Background Art
In conventional systems in which patterns are stored in the form of dot information in image memories, character generation is generally conducted either by transferring a dot pattern, stored in advance in an auxiliary memory or a read-only memory (ROM), to a display or output unit, or reading out contour data similarly stored, and, after a coordinate conversion, filling in the internal area of said contour with black on the image memory. It has therefore not been possible to obtain characters in various designs such as solid-black characters, white characters on black background, hatched characters or shadowed characters for apparent stereo effect, in combination with character enlargement, reduction, deformation, etc. On the other hand, pattern generation has been achieved by blacking or whitening or hatching the interior of relatively simple patterns such as polygons or circles, and the combination with character generation has been limited to very simple cases.
For this reason, complex effects can only be obtained through a tedious manual procedure independent from text preparation or pattern editing with computer, such as pasting a desired character or pattern, prepared for example by a photographic process, with a desired hatching pattern film, or, for obtaining a shadow effect, pasting two copies of a similarly prepared character or pattern, with a desired distance between them, followed by manual correction.